[11974] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Clipper and Aldrich Ames
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Bryon Propst)
Wed Apr 27 04:38:57 1994
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 10:34:01 EDT
From: bryon@boa.meaddata.com (Bryon Propst)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Here is a portion of the Data Communications article, posted without
permission:
The Washington whisper mill has it that accused double agent Aldrich Ames
may have sold information about the Clinton administration's Clipper
initiative to the Russians, a development that could doom the controversial
scheme to deliver low-cost encryption via a government-developed chip. Winn
Schwartel, executive director of security consultancy Inter Pact (Seminole,
Fla.), claims he found out about the possible breach from "a very well placed
and highly reliable person in Washington" who attended a meeting early last
month involving the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency. The meeting
addressed the possibility that Ames may have sold information about Clipper to
the Russians. Schwartel quotes his Deep Throat as saying, "If there's only a 1
percent chance that Clipper has been compromised, the whole thing's over, and
we have to start from scratch." At press time, the CIA would not confirm or den
ythat the Clipper chip had been jeopardized by its one-time employee. "Our
lawyers tell me that I should decline to comment, since {any threat to the
Clipper program} would be part of the damage assessment going on as part of
the current prosecution," says Dave Christian, a CIA spokesman. Since its
announcement last year, Clipper has drawn fire from critics who believe the
initiative opens the door to widespread electronic surveillance by government
agencies.
> This story has been floating around for several months with only the most
> flimsy sourcing. It was pretty thoroughly debunked the first time around.
> Did Data Communications report it as a meme or a true fact?
>
> At 6:16 PM 4/25/94 -0400, Bryon Propst wrote:
>
> >> > Data Communications reported in their April issue that the Clipper
> >> > technology may have been sold to the Russians by Aldrich Ames, thereby
> >> > making it an obsolete technology for the US gvt. However, I have heard
> >> > nothing more about the validity of this report.
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Philip Elmer-DeWitt ped@well.com
> TIME Magazine ped@panix.com philiped@aol.com
> Read TIME on America Online, where we get paid to take abuse.
>
>
>
